Remember the breakdown in the Olympic Pipe Line Co. computer system in July?

Remember the following article in the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER on July 9, 1999 regarding the deadly accident in Bellingham? My brother sent a letter to the newspaper inquiring about the possibility of an investigation... and received a response ---.see following:.

Sent: Thursday, August 26, 1999 7:45 PM

To: scottsunde@seattle-pi.com

Subject: Olympic Pipeline Computer Failure article dated 7-9-99

-----Original Message-----

Scott Sunde
Seattle Post
Seattle, Washington

Dear Mr. Sunde,

I read your newspaper article concerning the computer software failure in
the Olympic Pipeline dated July 9, 1999. I am attaching a copy to this
email.

I was wondering if there are any new developments on this story. Has
there been an investigation? If you can share any further information on
this event, I would be grateful.

Breakdowns in the Olympic Pipe Line Co. computer system just before and
during last month's deadly accident in Bellingham have so alarmed federal
regulators that they have issued a nationwide warning.

The federal Office of Pipeline Safety issued the warning this week to the
2,000 operators of liquid and natural-gas pipelines in the United States.
It
urged them to make sure that computer systems used to operate and monitor
pipelines are working properly.

The advisory details a series of computer failures on June 10 around the
time
Olympic's 16-inch line leaked up to 277,000 gallons of gasoline into
Bellingham creeks. Gasoline vapor later exploded in flames, and two
10-year-old boys and a teenager were killed.

After the accident, Olympic acknowledged that its computer system crashed
on
the afternoon of the accident. The computer problems may have kept
Olympic
personnel from reacting quickly to the leak, regulators said.

The computer system is known as SCADA -- supervisory control and data
acquisition. Such systems are common in the industry, though they may
have
been built at different times by different manufacturers.

All such systems go under the generic name of SCADA.

Some companies, including Olympic, add to their computer systems
leak-detection equipment. Olympic's uses such information as temperature
and
pressure to detect leaks.

But investigators with the Office of Pipeline Safety have determined that
Olympic's computer system broke down on the day of the accident.
"Immediately prior to and during the incident, the SCADA system exhibited
poor performance that inhibited the pipeline controllers from seeing and
reacting to the development of an abnormal pipeline operation,"
regulators
said in their advisory.

The Office of Pipeline Safety is part of the U.S. Transportation
Department.
Regulators did not name Olympic in the advisory. But Patricia Klinger, a
spokeswoman for the Office of Pipeline Safety, acknowledged that the
incident
mentioned in the advisory and prompting the warning was Olympic's
Bellingham
accident.

The message to other pipeline operators, she said, is to "take extreme
caution."
"We don't want to see this repeated."

Gerald Baron, an Olympic spokesman, said the company believes federal
regulators are being prudent in sending out the advisory to pipeline
operators.

Baron could not discuss the details of the computer problems and
cautioned
against focusing on computer difficulties or any other single factor as a
cause of the accident.

But on June 10, the system had an internal database error. That error,
plus
the demands put on the computer by the leak, "hampered controller
operations," the advisory said.

"The combination of the database error, the inadequate reserve capacity
of
the SCADA processor and the unusually dynamic changes that occurred
during
the upset condition appear to have combined and temporarily overburdened
the
SCADA computer system," regulators said.

"This may have prevented the pipeline controllers from reacting and
controlling the upset condition on their pipeline as promptly as would
have
been expected."

Regulators also said that modifications made to the computer system after
it
was installed may have caused it to malfunction.

The Office of Pipeline Safety ordered Olympic on June 18 to find out what
went wrong with its computer system and correct it. It also ordered the
company to make a comprehensive review of its SCADA system.

Those demands came as part of a corrective order that closed the upper 37
miles of the 400-mile pipeline. Regulators also ordered the company to
undertake several safety modifications and reviews.

Yes. In its amended corrective action order, the Office of Pipeline
Safety
criticized the company for having people operating the SCADA system who
didn't know how to maintain it and required it to give the workers
additional training. You can see this at the OPS web site:
WWW.OPS.Dot.Gov
Look under "what's new."
The company also had pledged to make computer improvements, including
increasing CPU power by several hundred percent. The company's
explanation
is that there was a software error and the computer kept demanding more
and
more data, consuming and monopolizing the computer. The company ought to
have an explanation of its view on its web site: WWW.OLYPIPE.COM

Swell. Gas pipeline a mile to the east. Two non-yet-ready nukes ten
miles to the south. SCADA systems at risk. I feel like this
computer, wanting more and more and more data. But unlike it, I can
choose not to let it break me down. Amazing how we manage to
function so well despite the increasing tension, isn't it? Off to
work at the hospital (See http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-
fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001JWm for a glimse of that world.)

Incidentally, Gary North had a link last Thursday to an EPA site that
lists by zip code all establishments that handle hazardous waste.
Check out your area, stop by a few places and see what their
contingency plans are.